


'Everything I hate about myself you taught me!'

by UnicornOfTheSun



Series: Drabble Series that is Yet to be Named [2]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Angst, Bad Parent Gothel (Disney), Childhood Trauma, F/M, Good Significant Other Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider, New Dream Fluff, Nightmares, Psychological Trauma, Rapunzel Needs a Hug (Disney)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25187146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnicornOfTheSun/pseuds/UnicornOfTheSun
Summary: Rapunzel wakes from a nightmare but a familiar voice follows her out of the land of dreams.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Series: Drabble Series that is Yet to be Named [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1802776
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30





	'Everything I hate about myself you taught me!'

**Author's Note:**

> Don’t mind me rewatching infinity war for the 100th time to get this idea.  
> I’ve always craved a scene where Raps gets to confront Gothel again, even if it’s all just in her head. So why not do it myself?

  
The darkness stuck to her like sweat, clawing at her skin and totally enveloping her small frame. Rapunzel’s breathing was jagged and laboured. Her tears flowed uncontrollably out of her eyes and she found herself muffling sobs, and only partially succeeding. 

At least she hadn’t woken up screaming this time.

Rapunzel briefly considered waking up Eugene. But that wouldn’t be fair to him. He tried to hide them but she knew he was also dealing with nightmares, yet he never came to her.

_Stupid,_

_Immature,_

_Naive,_

_Gullible._

The words repeated like a mantra, accompanied by a voice she wished she could just forget.

“Gullible, naive, immature,” she mumbled to herself.

 _“Stop mumbling!”_ The familiar voice hissed.

“You’re not real,” Rapunzel said, her voice clearer anyway. Nervously, she brought her hair like a blanket closer around her.

_“You’re a mess up, why did you think you would be a good princess?”_

“You are not real,” Rapunzel insisted, her voice wavering.

_“Doesn’t change the fact that I’m the only one who ever wanted you.”_

“My parents and Eugene love me.”

 _“Don’t be stupid Rapunzel - they just put up with you because they have to.”_ Rapunzel shook her head, clawing at her sheets and wishing she could go back to being asleep. _“It would have been better for everyone if you just stayed with mummy.”_

“You’re not my mother!” Rapunzel yelled. Fresh tears leaked out of her eyes and her hands balled in and out of fists, clawing at her sheets and hair.

_“Maybe not, but I protected them from you. Look at all you’ve done since you’ve left. Messed up as Queen when you only had to do it for a day, injured people, failed to protect those you cared about, hurt your friends, so much so that two of them have decided to betray you, not one but two, what do you think that says about you as a person?”_

The Princess knew that the voice was a figment of her imagination and that she was dead, that woman is dead. But it hurt hearing her fears and failures laid out blatantly in front of her. Even after helping Varian and working up the courage to talk to Eugene about her latest fears and failures that last night it brought up things she was still trying to bury.

 _“Everyone saw how poorly you reacted to Cass, you could have been so close and yet you made her angrier. Proclaiming yourself sisters, how naive do you have to be Rapunzel. Please, you would think you would have learned your’ lesson from the first time._ _Everyone sees how you make Eugene do the things you want - the way you manipulate the people arou-”_

“Like you did!” Rapunzel interrupted. “In fact, everything I hate about myself you taught me!” She clawed at her hair, wishing, not for the first time, that it could just be gone - a constant reminder that was literally unbreakable and attached to her head.

She laughed bitterly to herself. “I mean what did I expect, having only you for human contact, of course, I’m going to pick up some things that I regret. Hmmm, let's see, I always find a way to get what I want, I miss cues from the people I care about, and most frequently I drive the people around me to commit treason,” Rapunzel vented, her bitter smile crooked and almost crazy.

Pascal who could only hear one side of the conversation had tried to get close and comfort his oldest friend who was clearly in distress, but the Princess was so wrapped up in her head she didn’t notice him. The chameleon just snuggled next her in a futile attempt to calm his friend.

Someone was filling with her door handle and trying to get in.

“And yet, somehow, somehow, I still love you.” It hit her like a punch in the gut or the force her door opened with - she had never brought herself to speak those words out loud, not even to Eugene. She laughed again while her mind reminded her of the chains, the manipulations and the love of her life lying _dead_ in her arms.

“Hey, Blondie, you ok?” A voice asked from beside her. Rapunzel jumped, clutching her hair closer and whimpering slightly. “Sunshine?” The voice asked again. Rapunzel came to her senses and realised who it must have been - that it wasn’t her mother.

“Eugene?” She mumbled. She winced, but Eugene had driven the witch away and the reprimand never came.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he said. The Princess automatically clambered closer to him for a hug. “You ok? I heard you yelling,” he said, holding her close and careful not to touch her hair.

“Nightmare,” she answered plainly. Eugene nodded - the day when it wasn’t nightmares they would both rejoice.

“Why didn’t you come to see me?” He asked. Rapunzel looked down at her hands and the mantra began to fill her head again.

“Because I shouldn’t burden you with this,” she whispered. “I’m daft, naive, too innocent and-” Eugene placed a finger over her lips.

“What have I told you about those words,” Eugene whispered. She looked into his eyes, filled with pity she didn’t deserve.

“Not to repeat them?”

“Exactly.”

“I’m sorry.” Eugene pulled her closer and she buried her sniffly nose into the crook of his neck but he didn’t seem to mind.

“You have nothing to be sorry for sunshine,” he said.

“But what about Cass-” He pushed her chin up so she could see his face.

“We discussed that, didn’t we. Betraying you like that was no way to react,” he insisted. Rapunzel figured her hair, the protest dying on her lips. “And I want, no I _need_ you to know that if you are in distress, nightmare or otherwise, that you can come and talk to me.”

Rapunzel nodded gratefully. “That’s more then you could ever say,” she whispered to the voice.

“What was that?” Eugene asked.

“Nothing,” she said. He didn’t look convinced but didn’t push it.

“Promise me you’ll talk to me about these things?”

“Promise,” Rapunzel agreed instantly.

“I love you Blondie,” Eugene whispered.

“I love you more.”

There are no words to describe the relief the princess of Corona felt that day when no one said -

_‘I love you most.’_


End file.
